British Parachute Association

BPA Archivists - Andrew Hilton and Graham Spicer  archive@bpa.org.uk

 

Update - 1 February 2012

Officially announced at the BPA AGM on 28 January 2012, the Archive project also held an informal introductory session with about 20 people attending. The following ideas were raised for the eventual online archive:

• Online Audio-stream of long time jumpers stories and interviews
• Archive of UK jump aircraft types, locations used, registrations
• Request donations of unwanted and interesting gear and BPA/skydiving artefacts
• Create a physical (or online virtual) museum of old gear
• Article on changes in instructing and training methods
• Archive STC and council minutes from past years (also available in older BPA magazines)
• Regular archive features in current magazine
• Create a book listing of older parachuting books held by membership across the country. This to include the collection currently at the BPA office
• Place a notice requesting valuable skills that could be utilised by the project (such as web design, image scanning, editing footage, convert cine and old video to digital formats).

Thanks to everyone who attended and contributed. We will be following as many of these up as practicable, and hoping that many other ideas and hopefully offers of help are forthcoming.

It cannot be overemphasized that this project will achieve so much more with the help of the membership. Offers of time and skills (see final point in list above) as well as archive materials to include will be very much appreciated.

 

First announcement - 24 January 2012

As a project first envisaged during the 50th Anniversary of the BPA in 2011, the Association has embarked upon the creation of an archive of the sport in the UK.

At present, this is in its earliest phases and members Andrew Hilton and Graham Spicer have accepted the Development Committee's invitation to take forward this potentially vast project. The archive will ultimately be a mainly digital, online resource for all to access.

It is envisaged that the entire collection of BPA magazines will be online, plus articles, footage, and pictures as well as people, drop zone, competition, and aircraft histories and more.

The Archivists wish to involve the membership as much as possible. We are asking for anyone who has any resources or ideas to share with us to get in touch. These could be with photographs, artefacts and stories that are of any interest. Equally useful would be the volunteering of skills or time that would be of use to this far reaching and, in reality, never ending project.

Almost any item related to the past history of UK jumping can be of interest. Please consider sharing anything that you may have. The preferred medium would be digital - e.g. digitally scanned photos, cine film footage already converted to digital format. Most people should at least know someone who can do this for them if they themselves are not able. Nonetheless, there is scope for the archivists to do that themselves, but the more material received already in the preferred formats, the more time we can dedicate to other aspects of the archive.

Please feel free to get in touch with any comments, ideas, offers of help or resources or anything else that you may feel is relevant to the BPA Archive.

 

Andrew Hilton andrew@bpa.org.uk    Graham Spicer graham@bpa.org.uk

BPA Archivists  archive@bpa.org.uk

Contact can also be made via the BPA Office (please note the archivists are not based at the BPA Office).

 

Some historical links

Scottish Parachute Club 1960-2000

Vintage Parachute Gear Photostream

Brief history of sport parachuting